Written by playwright and director Jonny Khan
Whilst researching my new play CAMDENWALLA, I kept finding myself asking the same question: why had I never heard of the Camden Monitoring Project?
I've tried to do a lot of work about British South Asian communities, identity and history. Yet somehow this organisation had completely passed me by.
The Camden Monitoring Project was set up in the 1980s in response to racist attacks in Camden. It helped transport workers safely to and from work, documented racist incidents, challenged police inactivity and supported people who often felt they had nowhere else to turn.What struck me wasn't just what they did but it was how many people I spoke to who treated it as completely normal. The more research I did, the more I realised that many of the people involved didn't see themselves as activists.
They saw themselves as neighbours, friends, relatives and community members doing what needed to be done. I think that's one of the reasons stories like this get forgotten.
The people involved weren't trying to make history. They were trying to get people home safely and to support families after attacks. They were trying to solve immediate problems.
During my research I spoke to Nasim Ali, community leaders, restaurant workers on Drummond Street and local residents. I spent time in archives and listened to people share their memories of that period.
Again and again, I heard stories about people looking after one another when official systems weren't doing enough. That might mean giving someone a lift home after a late shift because they were worried about being attacked or helping someone report an incident.
I couldn't help thinking about my parents' generation whilst doing this research. Many of the stories I heard involved levels of racism that are difficult for my generation to imagine. Today racism often feels more coded. Back then it was frequently direct and visible. People were attacked in the street.
Businesses were targeted. Communities lived with a level of fear that shaped daily life.
What became clear to me was that many of the opportunities my generation has today didn't appear out of nowhere. They exist because previous generations organised, challenged institutions and looked after one another. That's why I think organisations like the Camden Monitoring Project still matter. Because they remind us that communities are capable of far more than we sometimes give them credit for.
We're currently living through another period where anti-immigrant rhetoric is becoming increasingly common. Community tensions are often discussed through the lens of politics, policy and institutions.
Those conversations are important. But my research also made me think about a different question: what responsibility do we have to one another? That's one of the central questions in CAMDENWALLA.
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| Jonny Khan. Photo by BBC Images. |
The play follows two people from different generations. One believes the best way to survive is to keep your head down and get on with life. The other believes there comes a point when you have to push back. Neither position is presented as completely right or wrong. What interested me was the conversation between them. How do we respond when something is wrong? How do we support our communities? What do we owe the generations that came before us and what do we owe the generations that come after? I don't think the Camden Monitoring Project provides simple answers to those questions. But it does provide is an example of ordinary people deciding not to leave everything to somebody else.
The organisation itself may not be widely remembered today but the idea behind it feels incredibly relevant - if we want stronger communities, somebody has to be willing to show up for them.
The people I researched did exactly that. I think there's a lot we can still learn from them.
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